Enjoying the last appearance, celebrating, letting himself be celebrated. That was Romed Baumann’s plan at the home World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. But the weather did not treat the 40-year-old well, his final race on Sunday was canceled due to fog on the course. The decision to end his career “matured,” Baumann said. “It felt right that I do it here in Garmisch.” It had been planned that he would announce it shortly before the race start, but he had already hinted at it the day before.
“I don’t quite have the same willingness as I did three, four years ago,” he said. And that has nothing to do with a lack of motivation. Baumann wants to, but cannot anymore. In the downhill on Saturday he nearly had to brake at a gate, but he took it anyway and finished 15 seconds behind the winner Marco Odermatt of Switzerland. “I didn’t think I could dare to push myself to go again,” he said. Baumann made his World Cup debut in 2004, notched two wins in 387 races, and won two World Championship medals.
His decision somewhat obscured the performance of the Germans at the home World Cup. On Saturday the sole starter, Simon Jocher, finished in 37th place. The one who had provided a small glimmer of hope before the Olympics as eighth at Kitzbühel moved through the finish area on crutches. Luis Vogt had torn his cruciate ligament in the final training and had to end the season.
While the German downhillers were literally hobbling on crutches, there were successes for the women at the Andorran ski resort Soldeu. Emma Aicher left the Pyrenees with a win and a second place in the two Super-G races over the weekend. On Friday the two-time Olympic silver medalist had already closed the gap to the World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn of the United States with a fourth place. “A few mini-errors” she had made, and in the steep section she “didn’t quite go through,” but otherwise Aicher, as nearly always, was “quite satisfied” with her skiing in these days.
Wechsel zum deutschen Verband
With Baumann, the last athlete of a grand German downhill era bids farewell. The Austrian Ski Federation had sorted him out, the athlete who had won a combined bronze at the 2013 World Championships. Because he still felt too young at 33 to quit, he asked in 2019 in the neighboring country. Baumann’s wife is German, and he already lived in Bavarian Kiefersfelden. Baumann experienced for the first time in the German Ski Association something like nest warmth, something he did not know in the ÖSV, dominated by competition. And this positive working climate ensured that he rose again among the best—and with silver in the Super-G at the Cortina 2021 World Championship achieved his greatest sporting success.
The level he could maintain for another year or two, but then the effort began to show more and more. Nevertheless, said head coach Christian Schwaiger, Baumann remained an important part of the team, a valuable point of contact for the younger athletes.
The German Ski Association benefited even more from Emma Aicher’s switch of national allegiance, as she had already come to Germany at 16 and not merely at a late stage of a skier’s career. Those who switch federations at such a young age are usually dissatisfied, seeking better development opportunities elsewhere. Emma Aicher doesn’t dwell on the reasons she moved from Sweden to Germany six years ago, only saying that it was possible because of her German father. Perhaps there is actually no reason to criticize the Swedish federation. On the other hand: if everything had been perfectly fine, she probably would not have engaged with the DSV at all.
Quite certainly, however, Aicher would not have become a successful four-discipline skier by the age of 22 without this switch. In Sweden, the focus for the development of young athletes is on slalom and giant slalom. When Andreas Puelacher took over the German women’s team as head coach in 2022, he immediately recognized that Aicher also possesses great talent for downhill and Super-G—and slowly brought her along. And now she could become the youngest winner of the downhill World Cup since Katja Seizinger. She was once even 19 years old.
